


you've got living to do (and I just want you to do it)

by iamnotacreative



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Cyber-Stalking, Cyberstalking, Family Feels, Feel-good, Gen, I like writing because even I don't know where it's going til it gets there, My First Work in This Fandom, Writing this made me emo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:55:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27265336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamnotacreative/pseuds/iamnotacreative
Summary: Alex asks Julie for her yellow pages. Julie introduces him to Facebook, Instagram, and the art of cyberstalking.
Relationships: Alex & Julie Molina
Comments: 26
Kudos: 201





	you've got living to do (and I just want you to do it)

Julie walks through her front door to the sight of Alex in her foyer with all of her mail in his hands raised above his head, looking at the table below it. Alex freezes when he hears the door open and sheepishly spins around to greet her. Julie blinks at him. Ever since they started being able to move things it’s made Julie’s life just a little bit more difficult. But also so much better. After the initial surprise she continues into the house, shutting the door behind her. 

“You know it’s illegal to go through other people’s mail, right? I could have you arrested.”

Alex’s jaw drops. “Julie! I thought we were friends!”

Julie grins and shakes her head at him. “Real friends wouldn’t go snooping around in their mail.” She moves into the kitchen and puts her backpack down on one of the chairs. “Anything interesting in there?”

Alex follows her, the pile of mail still in his hands as he starts rifling through them. “Mostly bills I think. And some coupons for clothing stores. Ugh,” he releases a sigh. “I wish I could still go shopping.” 

“If you go to a store and start trying on things, will people just see clothes trying themselves on?” Julie goes to the fridge to pour herself some orange juice. “Imagine watching a fashion show where there’s no models, just clothes walking themselves down the runway.”

“That would be so cool. I would pay to go see that,” Alex agrees, staring off into the distance imagining it. “Wait this gives me so many ideas.”

“Please don’t walk into a store and do an impromptu fashion show,” Julie feels like it shouldn’t need to be said, but it needs to be said. 

Alex scoffs and puts a hand to his chest. “I would never! Who do you think I am?” 

“A ghost teenager who joined a girl group on stage because he wanted to dance,” Julie replies without missing a beat. 

Alex puts his hand on his hip and tries to think of something to say to that. “You know what? That’s fair.” He drops the pile of mail on the table. 

Julie grins to herself as she takes a sip of her orange juice. She nods to the pile. “What were you looking for anyway?”

“Hm? Oh I was just looking for your white pages,” Alex shrugs. “For some reason I can’t find any at the phone booths, also, where did all the phone booths go?”

“No one uses phone booths any more so they tore them down.”

“They tore them down?? Like all of them??” Alex almost yells.

“Well most of them, no one uses them. I’ve never in my life seen anyone actually use a phone booth.”

“Then where do all the white pages go?”

Julie shakes her head in confusion. “What are white pages?”

“What are white pages?! Like yellow pages but for people??” 

Julie blinks at him. “What are yellow pages?”

“What are yellow pages??!” Alex feels like he has to sit down. Things can advance so far in 25 years. Julie just shrugs. “It’s a directory of people and businesses and their phone numbers and addresses.”

Julie frowns. “People just used to just put their phone numbers out there for the whole world to find?” She makes a disgusted face. “That sounds sus.”

“It was convenient, and nice, and so so helpful,” Alex pouts. He moves into the living room and drops onto the couch. Julie follows him. 

“Are you looking for someone?”

Alex has his arms crossed and his head leaned back, staring at the ceiling. He shrugs. Julie purses her lips to the side and considers him for a second before putting her orange juice down and dropping next to him on the couch. She sits cross legged facing him and puts her hands in her lap. 

“Who were you looking for?”

Alex frowns at the ceiling. “My sister.”

Julie perks up. “You have a sister?”

Alex smiles and turns to her. “I do.” He frowns again. “I- I did.”

Unacceptable for Julie. She throws a pillow that goes right through him, he squawks in response as he flinches. “Rude!”

“Tell me about her!” Julie laughs. 

Alex hesitates then moves to get comfortable. “Her name’s Deliah,” he grins. “I used to call her Silly Dilly when she was little. She loves pickles, and Dunkaroos, and hates mayo even though mayo is essential to all sandwiches ever. Sometimes she would come into the garage while I was practicing and I’d sit her on my lap and let her wail out on my drums. Her arms were too short for my set but when she leaned I’d balance her from side to side so she didn’t have to move. Reggie was her favorite. He would give her piggy back rides whenever she wanted and he would just hang out with her, like, without me sometimes.” Alex laughs. “Just because he’s Reggie.”

Julie smiles and rests her head on her hand as she listens. “Yeah that sounds about right.”

“She was 5 years younger than me when I died so she would be…” Alex ponders trying to do the math in his head. “Twenty… twenty-seven? No wait thirty-seven? That sounds right, right?”

“Uh, imma be honest,” Julie shrugs. “I have no idea how old you guys are.”

Alex laughs. “I’m 17 so she was 12 when I died. 12 + 25 is 37 right?”

“Dannggg,” Julie hums. “So you guys would be 42?”

“Eugh,” Alex makes a face. “Let’s not talk about that. Anyways you know how old Bobby is now, we were all the same age-ish.”

Julie blinks at him. After a moment she shudders. 

“Okay okay,” Alex waves his hand as if it would clear those thoughts out of the air. “I don’t want to think about that.”

Julie laughs but lets it go. “Well did you try google-ing her?”

“I-” Alex blinks owlishly. “No, I didn’t think of that.”

Julie beams and it suddenly makes Alex feel unsure of the idea. She jumps up to the dining table where she left her bag, and pulls out her laptop. Alex sits next to her when she opens it up. She grins at him. 

“Allow me to introduce you to the fine art of cyber-stalking.”

Alex grimaces. “I’m not so sure I like the sound of that word.”

Julie ignores him and opens up a new browsing window. “Spell her name for me please.”

“D-e-l-i-a-h E-l-l-i-s.”

“Hang on,” Julie pauses and looks at him. “Your last name is Ellis?”

“Yeah?”

Julie nods slowly and turns back to her computer. “There is so much I don’t know about you guys. And you know everything about me.” 

“Well, we basically live with you,” Alex comments as he leans in to see the search results. “Not much choice there.”

“Yes!” Julie objects. “So I should know more about you guys!”

“You know us!” Alex frowns at her. “You know the important stuff. The good stuff. And we love you for it.” He grins at her. 

Julie gives him a grimace, but rolls her eyes lightheartedly and turns back to her computer. The first search result is an obituary and she blanches. 

“Deliah Vaughan Ellis, 88,” she reads aloud, and Alex exhales so hard Julie thinks if he wasn’t a ghost it would make him lightheaded. “Plymouth, died January 2001. I’m assuming that’s not her.”

Alex sighs and leans back in his chair. “No, definitely not.”

Julie skims through the rest of the page. “Not a super common name, that’s a good sign. Half of these are about this 88 year-old lady.”

“That’s good?” Alex asks skeptically. 

“Yeah. That means less people to sort through,” Julie replies like it’s obvious. “There’s also an author,” she continues clicking on a goodreads link. “Published 1986, nope.” She goes back a page and squints at the link. “Oh. Also spelled wrong. Haha whoops.”

Alex looks on beside her. She’s moving too quickly and he's barely keeping up. 

“Okay, let’s try facebook.” She opens a new tab and opens facebook, ignoring her notifications to the search bar. “Not many Deliah Ellis’s from what I can see. There’s five and then spelling changes.”

Alex points to two of the profiles. “What are these gray silhouettes for? What does that mean?”

“That just means they don’t have a profile picture so they’re most likely inactive.” She clicks through them and back quickly. “Yeah, no posts, like three friends. Not helpful. Any of these other ones look familiar?”

She zooms in on the other three profile pictures. Alex shakes his head. 

“Hmm,” Julie considers. “Okay, let’s try instagram.”

“This feels like a lot,” Alex comments as Julie logs into her account. 

“It’s not called cyber-stalking for nothing,” she grins at him. 

“You thought white pages were sus but this is okay? This feels less okay.”

“Relaaaxxx,” she hums into her search bar. “Everyone is online now this is normal.”

“This is so weird.”

“Okay!” she ignores him. “Lots more results here than facebook.” She scrolls through a list of accounts. “You know what, this would probably be easier on my phone.” 

Julie pulls out her phone and opens up her app, then quickly goes through every result that pops up. With each she views the profile for about a second before either commenting “child”, turning to Alex who shakes his head no, or on private accounts zooming in as much as she can on the profile photo and then showing it to Alex. Who shakes his head no again. 

“Hmm, okay.” Julie leans back in her chair, considering. 

“Oh man,” Alex sighs back against his own chair. Julie looks over to him. “I just realized. She might be married by now. She would’ve changed her name. I would’ve missed her wedding.”

Julie watches his face fall and sits up with a new determination. 

“Alright. New idea.” Alex raises his eyebrows at her as she switches back over to her laptop. “Do you remember any friends she used to have? Oh! Or neighbors!”

Alex sits up a little. “I’m not really sure. We weren’t really close with our neighbors, and I don’t think I knew any of the last names of her friends.”

“Okay, hm. What about Trevor?” Alex’s face immediately darkens. “She knew Trevor- Bobby when she was growing up, right?” Julie searches Trevor Wilson on facebook and clicks on community. 

Alex leans forward, still frowning. “You think she’s friends with him on facebook?”

Julie shakes her head, not seeing what she wants. “His account is a follow page, so it’s people who are fans that follow his posts. I can’t see everyone who follows him, but it gives me another idea. What’s Bobby’s last name?”

“Wilson.”

“Oh,” Julie pauses. “So he changed his first name but not his last name?”

Alex shrugs. “Less complicated maybe? Legally?”

“Huh,” she says, and searches ‘Bobby Wilson.’ 

“Oh no,” she groans. There are a lot of Bobby Wilson’s in the world apparently. She scrolls down and more Bobby Wilson's load. It’s a long list. She scrolls all the way back up. “Do you want to go through all these Bobby’s?”

“Wait no,” Alex leans in and points to the first name. “That’s - I think that’s him.”

“No way, one mutual friend?” Julie clicks on his page and to his friends list. Rose Molina: mutual friend. “Mom?”

Alex tilts his head at her in confusion. “You said Trevor was a family friend, right? From your mom?”

“Yeah but,” she stutters. “She knew him when he was Bobby?”

“Hang on wait,” Alex does a double take, leaning in so close to the laptop screen it blocks Julie’s view. “Rose? We met a Rose on the night we died,” he mutters mostly to himself. Then he yells and makes Julie jump. “Whoa! Wait! Do you think that’s the connection? Why we’re still here? Why you can see us and you brought us back?”

Alex is speaking so quickly and so intently, Julie feels short of breath. She wants so badly to click on her mom’s profile, to look at her photos, to read her posts, just to see her face. She wants her back. 

Instead, she tunes back into the moment and clicks into Bobby’s friends list and types Deliah into the search bar. 

“Julie?” Alex asks softly next to her. 

“I’m not-” she takes a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m not mentally or emotionally prepared for that. I don’t know if i can even look at her profile right now without crying. I’m sorry, I don’t-”

Alex puts one of his hands on top of hers where it rests on the laptop. It phases through her, but she looks at it through glassy eyes and swears she can feel the ghost of a sensation. When she looks up at him his head is tilted slightly to the side and he has a small smile on his face. 

“We can come back to it when you’re ready.”

Julie smiles and nods thankfully. She clears her throat and turns back to her computer. “Deliah. Two Deliah’s here. Either of them look familiar?” she asks as she zooms in on their profile pictures. Alex doesn’t respond, so she turns to him. “Alex?”

She didn’t think a ghost could go pale, but if anyone was going to do it, it was going to be Alex. After a moment he nods silently and points to the second one. _Deliah Trevino_. 

She’s beautiful. She has long, light brown hair, a dazzling smile, and Alex’s green-grey eyes. Her cover photo is of her family: two young kids, a boy and a girl, and what Julie assumes is her husband. She scrolls down to see that her profile is only partially public, so they can only see a few posts a year. Alex is silent. They go through her photos, profiles of a beautiful woman to a young child, as they scroll further back. Alex’s breath hitches when they pass an old photo of Deliah and her older brother. 

It’s an old photo. She can’t be older than six. Alex looks so young, so happy, so anxiety free. 11 year-old him is sitting on the floor, laughing, while she stands and plants a kiss on his head. It’s so soft, and innocent, and Alex’s eyes are watering. Julie passes him the laptop, where he reads through the comments and scrolls through more photos. Julie picks up her phone and opens instagram. 

She does the same thing as before, but this time searching for Deliah Trevino. There’s only three results, which Julie thanks god for, and the one that shows a beautiful brown haired woman is thankfully public. Julie looks up to tell him the good news, but stops short when she looks at the screen. 

“Is that your mom?” 

Alex nods, then lets out a raspy, “Yeah.”

“You have her eyes,” Julie smiles. “Both of you.”

Alex lets out a breath that’s half laugh half sob. “Yeah. We got most of our looks from her. Dad wasn’t too happy about it. Deliah got his hair though. And his chin.” He clicks to the next photo where his dad poses with his mom in a garden. 

Julie feels she should leave him some privacy, and turns back to her phone. She scrolls through a few posts of friends, her children, and mountain hikes, before being struck by an old photo of Alex that Deliah posted in June. She slaps her hand over her mouth. 

“Alex,” it comes out muffled. She doesn’t remove her hand from her face as she moves the phone toward him so that he can see it with her. 

It’s a set of five photos. The first one is a photo of young Alex and Deliah, squeezing their cheeks together and smiling as hard as they can at the camera. The second is of Alex playing drums and winking. The third is of her daughter, smiling innocently on a patio chair. The fourth is Deliah and her kids at the Pride Parade, holding rainbow flags and throwing confetti. The fifth is of Alex’s entire family that looks like it could be a Christmas card photo. 

The caption reads:

_ “When I was younger, my brother was my best friend in the whole wide world. His hobbies included playing the drums, worrying about me, and pretending to like girls. He came out to my parents when he was 16 years old. I was only 11, I had no idea what was going on, or why it was suddenly always tense between him and my parents. Or why he started spending less and less time at home. 25 years ago, Alex passed away, and I never got to say good-bye. He and my parents never got to kiss and make up, and I watched them regret it for years after that. Alex had the kindest soul I’ve ever come in contact with, and I hope he knows that I supported and am still supporting him. I hope you live on in my Alexis. She reminds me of you more every day, especially since I introduced her to your old drum set (even though she picked up a bass guitar instead). Happy birthday Alex, and happy Pride. I love you so much.” _

Julie slowly removes her hand. “She named her daughter after you, Alex.”

Alex’s eyes are wet, and he doesn’t bother trying to contain a sob. Not that Julie would blame him, she’s trying not to cry too. Alex has no words. He stares at the screen and reads her caption over and over again, and looks at her beautiful daughter. Julie opens up the profile on her laptop so that Alex can see it on a bigger screen. Alex sobs and laughs at the same time, tears flowing freely now. He taps through more of her photos, crying, and making incoherent noises, and pointing. Julie doesn’t stop a few tears from rolling down her face either. She notices a geotag on some of her photos. 

“She’s in San Diego. That’s not that far,” she notes. “Do you want to take a trip down?”

“I wouldn’t even know where to start on finding her,” Alex shakes his head and rubs at his face with the palm of his hand.

Julie spreads her arms in an _‘excuse me do you know who you're talking to’_ gesture. “I mean, I got this far I’m pretty sure I can find more out about her life if you give me an hour.” 

Alex releases a laugh that seems to surprise him. He composes himself, but only a little. “Thank you, Julie. For everything.” 

“It’s what I’m here for,” she smiles at him. “Literally. Fate decided it. It was against my will.”

Alex laughs like a real person (ghost?) this time. “Well you’re stuck with us. You’re lucky we love you.”

“Mmm,” Julie gives him a skeptical look. “More like you guys are lucky  _ I  _ love  _ you. _ ”

“Hmm,” Alex pretends to consider it. “Yeah you’re right.” 

Julie rolls her eyes. “So,” she supplies. “Are we going to keep looking through these accounts and crying our eyes out?” 

“I’ll try to keep the crying to a minimum,” Alex replies with a laugh. 

Julie grins and shakes her head, tapping to the next photo on Deliah’s Instagram. They barely hear the front door open and close. 

“Hey honey,” her dad greets as he enters the dining area. They both jump and Alex let’s out an involuntary squeak. 

“Oh, hi dad,” Julie says nervously, though she doesn’t know why. Her dad chuckles. 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” He pauses when he notices the pile of mail on the table. “Were you expecting something in the mail?”

Julie looks subtly but awkwardly to glare at Alex who just grins sheepishly. “Uhh no. Just sorting through,” she says turning her attention back to her dad. “Mostly bills I think.”

He gives her a skeptical but entertained look. “Okay honey.” He heads to his desk. When he’s turned, Julie swings her arm through his form like she means to shove his shoulder playfully. Alex laughs fully and puts his hands up in surrender and pops away. 

Julie looks at her laptop then back to her dad. She bookmarks the pages she has up then closes her laptop and heads to her father, hugging him from behind where he’s looking at his own laptop. 

“I love you dad.” 

He places a hand on her arms that are wrapped around his shoulders. “I love you too, honey.”

**Author's Note:**

> Ellis: benevolent, kindly  
> Trevino: lives at a place where boundaries meet
> 
> I need JUSTICE for ALEX and REGGIE'S FAMILIES!!! I mean I know they had a lot going on but tell me about their families pleaaasseee!!! I love them so much. Also one-on-one time with them and Julie plz. I love Luke but I love Alex so freakin much. 
> 
> I take prompts @prexenatious on tumblr :)


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